


Ezekiel's secrets

by Draco10



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, My First Fanfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 15:56:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4106608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco10/pseuds/Draco10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unlike Stone and Cassandra,Ezekiel can't leave his past behind...and may not want too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Damien Raul

**Author's Note:**

> Still editing, please comment it is surprisingly easy (even for guests)and I would really appreciate any critiques (don't you love that word) or suggestions

"You've been stealing stuff for someone" Flynn said grabbing Ezekiel's hand in the gray  
"I am a thief"  
  
"I found where everything's been disappearing to" Flynn announced to Jenkins walking into the main room with Ezekiel in tow . Stone,who had been reading, got it immediately.  
"He stole something"  
"Many things but not for himself"  
"See i steal selflessly" Stone glared at the thief  
"mmm...and how much is that employer paying you" Flynn asked.  
Ezekiel didn't reply  
"Has he stolen anything important" Stone asked barely in control of his anger.  
"Not yet and he will be retrieving what he has sold"  
"Woe wait, I can't steal from this guy"  
"Then cancel the deal"  
"This guy doesn't do canceled deals" Ezekiel was slowly getting more worried , they couldn't honestly want him to steal from Mr. D, but of course they did, they didn't know anything about him.well whatever they do to me can't possibly be worse than what Damian would, do it's not like I have a decision to make, Ezekiel thought. But getting hurt hurts and he was dreading what would happen next. Then again they aren't mr. D, he could definitely escape with his life and never come back, return to the world of thieves and back stabbers where he was so skilled and experienced.   
"Then you're going to have to steal from him"  
"He'll kill me"  
"You stole from the Louvre when you were nine, you'll be fine"  
"He'll kill me" Ezekiel repeated  
"Tell us who he is and we'll figure something out" Stone said,angry at Ezekiel but not willing to push him into a heist he couldn't handle.  
He actually didn't expect the theif to steal anything, which was stupid and naive no less because he literally told them he was more then happy to stab them in the back or bail on them...multiple times.  
Ezekiel gave them a brief bio on Damien Raul, who he repeatedly called Mr D. The guy had his own collection of mostly harmless magic (Ezekiel made a list for them) and sounded pretty scary. Stone had to wonder what other unsavory people Ezekiel knew.A small part of him worried for the young thief's safety...a vary small part.  
"Get some rest you have a long day tomorrow"Flynn instructed. Stone and Ezekiel walked up the stairs to their rooms (the annex had added rooms to itself for the multiple day or late night cases that happened frequently)  
"did you ever think just once that guy could be as crazy as Du lock"  
"I told you, he's not interested in Armageddon" God Stone wanted to punch him,he was so thoughtless  
"You stole stuff,magic stuff." He half shouted. The thief flinched away,putting his hand up to protect his face. Stone had spent his whole life reading people and giving them what they wanted .He used the same skills to realize in an instant 1.Ezekiel expected to be hit for this 2.he thought there was no way out and 3. he had been hit before hard enough and frequently enough to learn to cower.

Ezekiel knew that he would be hurt for this, he thought he would be killed for it, but they needed him for information. Flynn hadn't beat him immediately which just meant he didn't want to blood on his hands. Now he was going to get it. a warm hand landed on his head.  
"Ezekiel I'm not going to hit you...no matter how mad we get no one here will ever hit you" Stone spoke softly,gently a stark contrast to the harsh tone he had moments previous. This the thief hadn't expected, the librarians worked very differently from the thieves and crime bosses thet he was used too, but they were all beyond the law. They had too make their own cruel justice. Ezekiel looked up at a face full of questions. He wasn't ready to answer them, so he ran instead.

Stone swore as he sprinted down the stairs. Cassandra and Eve were sitting around the table getting a update from Flynn while Jenkins and read the newspaper all eyes turned to him.  
"He ran"  
"what do you mean he ran" Flynn asked. Realizing there is no quick explanation Stone took a seat and started explaining.  
"I kind of shouted at him and he got scared like I was gonna hit him and..." Stone paused trying to get the right words,this was a lot harder then he imagined. "If he had thought I was gonna hit him out of anger he would have ran to his room or disappeared but instead he just...cringed, So I told him I wouldn't hurt him and..."  
Cassandra's eyes had been scrunched up in confusion and they sprang open as she caught on. Which was a relief to Stone who didn't fancy having to explain it again.  
"He was expecting to get hit."she whispered. The others had figured out they when missing something, just didn't know what.  
"explain" Flynn demanded. Stone left Cassandra to do that, instead going to look for Ezekielabout he was about to give up the search, he heard voice with a eastern US accent ask, "do you want to know where your friend is" Stone turned to see a man leaning against a street lamp, he was chewing something and had spiky reddish blond hair. Thet part of Stones heart thet was worried about the thief was growing at monumentis rates. Stone approached the man cautiously, this guy had every scrap of evidence screaming dangerous criminal.  
"What would you know about Ezekiel"  
"I know the guy who's going to kidnap him and beat the living breath out of him,interested yet?"  
"if I could save Ezekiel from such a fate I would be willing to do anything" careful words fell out of Stone's mouth.  
"Well saving him is a stretch, this would be more like...uh... limiting the damage"  
"What do you mean? who are you?"  
"I'm this guys second-in-command, you can call me Rusty and I'll tell you what I mean once I figure out an explanation thet won't get me killed." hundreds of questions buzzed in Stones mind, so many he barely noted thet Rusty knew exactly where the annex was and almost over looked the fact that he knew about magic when he said "if you want Ezekiel to be breathing in the morning grab all the magic Healy stuff you got"  
Stone had just ran off to retrieve the small amount of magic healers they had collected on various missions and stored in the annex,when Rusty noticed the other people in the room .He sat in the nearest chair, put his feet on the table,smiled and said  
"I'm Rusty world class thief and unless you listen to me Ezekiel will be killed by my part time employer which I wouldn't care about, except he's useful. Any questions?"  
Stone appeared with the magic  
"Why should we trust this guy" Eve asked him.  
"none of this magic could hurt anyone and if he's telling the truth..."  
Flynn took command, "OK you Cassandra and Jenkins go, me and Eve will stay". Rusty was already at the door, Flynn hadn't seen him change position. Rusty walked confidently out of the annex with Cassandra and Stone following him. Jenkins lingered  
"I'm not" he started  
"call us if he's telling the truth"Flynn told him  
"have fun" Eve added  
  
"I'm dead" was Ezekiel's only thought when he caught sight of the midnight black limo with pure white streaks. Dead. The door opened. Completely and totally dead. Ezekiel stepped in  
"shut the door"  
he obeyed. So dead. He couldn't make out Mr.D's facial features in the dim light but knew it was him.  
"There was only one rule, Ezekiel and you had to break it" Ezekiel was kind of curious what that rule was, since he was definitly told at least 2, but decided against asking.The thought did make him less focused on being terrified." you told secrets"Damien said furiusly he emphasized it by slapping him, hard. A matalic taste filled his mouth. "thet makes you a traitor". A light bounced off two rings as they flashed through it.Tears sprung from Ezekiel's eyes." We kill traitors" one more hard hit. Mr. D jumped out of the car. "dead"

  
"so what's the plan" Cassandra asked as they ran down a dark street.  
"We beat up the bad guys, save Ezekiel." Stone answered briskly.  
"Yea,no." Rusty said,stopping and turning around."If we play hero Damiens gonna find out and beat him to death again"  
"Oh,and he's not gonna figure out Ezekiel's still alive if we let them beat him up first" Stone shot back.Rusty sighed and gave them a look like he was trying to explain a simple but important concept to a 5 year old.  
"I'm his second-in-command my job is to make sure Ezekiel survives, he's useful, more than useful. And plus oh my god the amount of emails I would have to send to people trying to employ him, explaining."

"Wait, you were hired to do this"  
"ok, I thought librarians were supposed to be smart"  
"He's a librarian in training" Jenkins was all to happy to reply as he tried to text updates to Flynn subtley.  
"But why not just heal him yourself, why do you need us?"Cassandra asked  
" we don't have much heally magic"Rusty started walking and the others followed  
" okay, but why all the sneaky stuff"  
"The guys beating him up don't know about magic"

They got to an alley where two guys were slamming someone into a wall ,except they knew who it was.Stone pulled out of the alley and peaked around the corner once more it didn't look good.He felt like punching someone,like stopping those guys but he didn't he just closed his eyes and preyed to god it would end soon.  
"Why are you hurting him"Cassandra asked. She sounded just as torn between what felt right and what was right as he was.  
"he told you about a whole lot of other stuff he wasn't supposed to tell you or anyone about"  
"so you just beat him within an inch of death?"  
"people telling the wrong people the wrong stuff is what gets people caught.And getting caughts the worst thing thet can possibly happen when you're in this business.We don't have a justice system. Instead we just make people to scared to cross us or do anything stupid." 

Flynn and Eve arived right after the men left. An up close look revealed two things, Ezekiel looked bad and he had a helmet on, which would have made Stone laugh if the situation wasn't so dire.the thief was breathing but fading quick and the magic took a while to work. Cassandra was trying to figure out if he would survive with limited statistics.Stone wanted to kill whoever did this.

Ezekiel pretended to be asleep out of instinct until everything came rushing back,including the pain. He groaned. Everything hurt... a lot, and he was dizzy, which didn't go well with the headache. Finally he looked up and kinda wished he hadn't. Rusty was there and he liked Rusty, but when the last thing you remember is getting beat to death and everything hurts, he's the last person you want to see. Because if you were hurt and Rusty was there it meant two very bad things 1. Damian did this to you,and 2. Rusty was here to throw you in a cell or hurt you some more. Luckily, today was a exception.Rusty helped him up.  
"How do you feel"  
"Remember that job where Varnick got control of the security system" (they had gotten tazed. Than slammed into a wall and thrown in a dumpster. Ah,painful, terrible, scary times)  
Rusty gave him an unsympathetic look, "Good. What were you thinking?"  
"That he wasn't listening,obviously"The older thief looked at him like he might possibly be the dumbest thing he had ever laid eyes on and disappeared back into the night.Ezekiel briefly thought about following him,he already knew where he was going.He could say sorry to Mr.D and not have to answer the curious looks.He stayed where he was and turned to the other figures standing in the alley. For a second he just waited, then he was crushed into a hug.  
"you were dying"Cassandra whispered releasing him.  
"Actually,not the worst thing they've done"  
"God, I swear I will kill who did this"Stone said furiously.  
"I'll start working on your obituary,man lived, acted stupid, died"Stone glared at the thief.  
" They gave me a helmet" Ezekiel said with a questioning voice. Somehow this made them all laugh because there was nothing else they could do.  
"How do you know Rusty"Stone asked, he had a pretty good idea but thought it was a good way to start the What-the-hell-just-happened conversation.  
" We did some jobs together" None of them knew what to do now. Ezekiel had dragged them into a world they knew nothing about.  
"Will they hurt you if you tell to much again" Eve asked  
"Not to you, I don't think"  
"OK" Eve didn't know if she should push for answers or wait for him to decide himself. She looked at everyone's expressions, even Jenkins looked curious."Lets get you to the annex and asses the remaining damage"  
It was pretty bad, not hospital bad but the magic had only fixed the big problems,he still had multiple deep cuts and was bruised up.It took a box of Band-Aids but by 1:50 am everyone was more than ready to go too sleep. Right before Stone departed for his room Eve caught his arm.  
"Could you watch him"She asked nodding at Ezekiel who was starting up the stairs.  
"Of course"

When he got to the room Ezekiel was starting to climb onto the top bunk.  
"What are you...no. get down"Ezekiel obeyed with a scowl.  
"I climbed a steel building while under fire,I think I can handle a bunk bed" he wasn't quite sure he could,all his newly healed bones were screaming in pain, but that was beside the point. Stone easily pulled himself up.  
"Yep I'm bunking with you"Ezekiel have him a pouty five year old look. "its your fault" Stone turned out the lights and told himself to just fall asleep. Instead he took everything he knew and made a picture.Damian Raul hired Ezekiel, Ezekiel told them to much, somehow Damien found out,and then this happened. One thing dug at him though, Ezekiel kept calling Damien Mr.D which brought back memories of elementary teachers who went by their first initial.then there was that little meaningless comment "actually, not the worst thing they've done" Stone felt his blood boil. He had questions but they would have to wait. Ezekiel was fast asleep.Then something started to beep and it was persistant. Stone climbed down to find the source. It was coming from Ezekiel's bag, Stone didn't know what to do, going through it to stop the beeping would be an invasion of privacy but the beeping was so annoying.He set aside his morals for a second and found the offending phone, flipped it open. It was just a weather allert. He pressed remind me later and dropped the phone back in the bag.He was staring at the ceiling when he figured out the problem. the phones design had been dropped in 2012 and Ezekiel's phone was always brand new (he aquired a new one once every couple months or weeks.).Then there was the allert thet had been styled like a reminder.He pushed it out of his mind because he knew better, because his parents had taught him better. Sometimes he wished he could be as immoral as the thief.


	2. The day after

It took almost falling off the bunk bed for Stone to remember everything. The event had confused him but not because of what happened,that was pretty straight forward, the part that vexed him was the interactions, how Rusty's personality reminded him of Ezekiel, how Ezekiel called Damian Mr.D , how Rusty and Ezekiel seemed so okay with this. He climbed down to where the thief was asleep.

"Ezekiel...EZEKIEL...EZEKIEL!!!!"

"Who died?"he asked sounding extremely groggy.

"A...no one" 

"Then Go away,its like 2 AM" 

Stone found his phone.

"It's 9 " he said turning around to find Ezekiel had headphones on and looked like he had already gone back to dreamland. Well as long as he isn't dead, Stone considered it a job well done. instead of continuing to try to wake him up stone jumped in the shower and got dressed then settled down with a book. a while later there was a knock at the door.

"How is he" Cassandra asked

"Go ahead and try to ask" he replied motioning towards the bed.

Cassandra disappeared without another word and came back a minute later with truffles in her hand and pockets. she marched over to the bed and tore off Ezekiel's headphones, effectively waking him. Before he could complain she showed him a truffle. In one motion the thief snatched the treat and sat up. he then ate it with a strange mix of delicacy and ferocity.

"And if you do 2 jumping jacks I'll give you another" 

"Ok"

He stood up and she almost thought he would do it, then he turned around with a grin and truffles In his hand. He popped one into his mouth looking very pleased. Cassandra decided to let it slide and go into a more important topic : gossip. The recent events gave her the rare chance to talk to Stone. He still hadn't forgiven her.

"guess who I saw sharing a room last night"

"No way,Flynn and Eve ?" Ezekiel said his eyes popping

"It was gonna happen sometime,they did kiss" Stone informed him

"They kissed?" He sounded horrified 

"Yeah and they were doing a lot worse things all night" Stone whispered, close to laughter. the thieves eyes must of been as big as basketballs.

"Ewe, I'm going to shower" Ezekiel said, escaping the room.

Cassandra and Stone's eyes met and they burst out laughing. That's when Stone realized he had forgiven her. Her betrayal still stabbed but Stone was over it.

"I'm worried about him" Stone admitted "they nearly killed him for a list"

"I am to" Cassandra said quietly "he's barely more than a kid if they hurt him every time he slips up..." She paused and looked up at Stone "we just need to watch out for him, we deal with deadly magic every day he's not getting killed by a common criminal"  
Stone didn't mention that the things that are hurting them the most had little to do with magic.  
"With any luck they'll leave him alone and we'll never have to deal with Damian Raul or Rusty again.

 

Eve checked beside her,Flynn was gone. She quickly got dressed and walked to the kitchen. Jenkins was sitting with another man he looked like he was in his early thirties or late twenties with reddish blond blond hair who was riffling through the cabinets , jenkins looked on with a mix of indifference and hate. who the hell is this guy? Then she remembered last night. Oh my god,Ezekiel. She forced herself not to check on him and charged into the room.

"What are you doing here"

"Well Damian seems to have little faith in Ezekiel's ability to survive getting beat up, so I'm here to confirm he's still alive,but I might leave due to your abhorrent lack of alcohol" he answered 

"Well Damian wouldn't have had to worry if he hadn't sent people to beat him up in the first place." Jenkins said sounding a little bit angry. This surprised Eve, it was almost like he actually cared about Ezekiel's well-being, he must have been really mad rusty had intruded on his work space.  
Rusty actually rolled his eyes at this,

"You're right we should have killed him,unfortunately we're way over quota with executions this week."

Ezekiel,Stone and Cassandra entered a second later, squandering Jenkins chance to reply. They obviously had been talking but shut up real fast when they walked into the room. Eve decided not to dwell on it.  
Ezekiel spotted Rusty.

"Hi,mate"

"Great, you're alive. Breakfast in Italy?" Rusty said giving up his search.

"Alright,right after you tell me what Damian wants"

" why do you think he wants something" Rusty asked innocently.

"Last time this happened you threw me into a cell,I got out and it took a solid week for Damian to realize I was gone and that was only because he saw a painting he liked,then he ELECTROCUTED me"

"You kinda deserved it,do you have any idea how much revenue we were getting from that."   
The sentence didn't make sense to Stone until he realized Rusty had meant whatever got Ezekiel thrown in a cell and just decided not to disclose the event to them.

"beside the point, what does he want this time"

Rusty sighed,

"Over Breakfast, let's go to France, you can't go two feet without encountering some wine. No, Scotland, beer" 

He made a move towards the portal and Jenkins blocked him. 

"I will need somewhere more specific to get you out of my work space"

"And Cassandra and Stone will be accompanying you" Eve added

"ok, loch lomond" jenkins set the portal, and rusty went out followed by ezekiel who, finding it was cold, turned around and walked right into cassandra knocking her into stone. Then rusty took a step back knocking ezekiel down and tripping. after they all got back inside there was a unanimous vote to go to australia.


	3. deals...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a tiny bit i swear im working on the rest remember last chapter when i said: Still editing, please comment it is surprisingly easy (even for guests)and I would really appreciate any critiques(don't you love that word) or suggestions, well ditto!(i like that word too)

The smell hit him first, so before his sneakers had even touched the hardwood floors he knew exactly where he was. It was a mix of sweet grass and salty muggy air plus the musty scent of dust and a tiny bit of alcohol, but nothing like a normal bar, there was to little and it was the most expensive stuff imaginable. The pub smelled old, but not mildewy old, old in a rich way, venerable. He had stood many places with more history, but the stories here were part of him they were about his family, they were part of this culture, the culture of thieves. And they were in his blood.He should of been surprised, but he wasn't and he was even less surprised when a hand grabbed his neck stopping his first instinct to retreat. Because he was too close to the house he had grown up in, the place where everything had fallen apart. So many secrets about a past he didn't understand, waiting but for once he was too scared to take the most valuable thing in the city.

The hand pushed him forward, towards a face he remembered well,so he snapped out of it.

The king of Russian crime,  Rurikovich scowled at him from behind a beer.

"Hey you asked for the best" Ezekiel reminded him though he really had no idea what was going on, actually he could deduce a lot. he still couldn't figure out why they were in Australia or so close to his house, but they were working with the Russians, who they didn't exactly "get along with"( last time they had worked together the gave the Russian, Varnick, control of the security system and he had tazed them. Than he slammed them into a wall and threw then in a dumpster. But that was okay because it wasn't even close as bad as what they had done to the Russians the time before)so it had to be something important and since they didn't "get along with" the Russians he would bet anything the plan involved not letting the opposing figure in front of him get what he wanted.

 Rurikovich snorted in reply,

"I thought you would be dead by now"

Ezekiel felt a glowy feeling in his stomach like he always did when someone admitted how good he was even in such a indirect manner, then he felt childish for wanting a evil russien monster's partial respect and squashed the feeling.

"Please, you think they could survive without me" Ezekiel said before realizing Rusty's hand had left his neck to push the other two forward.

"these are the security guards" he told Rurikovich,before turning to the security detail" we think they might be spies, if you see them doing anything abnormal, kill them."

"What!" Stone shouted

"Sorry but we can't take any chances" Rusty explained, keeping up the rouse. He pulled Ezekiel through the pub into a partially Hidden room. Rurikovich followed, locking the door leaving Cassendra and Stone outside with the security.

The room was small with just enough for a large round table and wastebasket, four Russians sat around it. 

There was one woman, she looked about 40, Ezekiel recalled a con artist that she probably was but he wasn't sure. 

Next to her was probably the youngest of the bunch, he was still older than Ezekiel, around Rusty's age, well he looked around Rusty age, Rusty was probably older. Ezekiel had known Rusty his whole life and the guy had looked the same the whole time, well not the exact same, the amount of gell in his hair changed.

Next to him sat a serious man about as old as Rurikovich, probably his right hand man. 

And then sat Rurikovich, 49 years old, big, tall, black hair and a wicked dislike for all things Australian, well not all things but definitely the two in front of him. He was there to oversee the meeting. The second in command would oversee the con. The youngest was just to show off, like hey we got people who are just as good as you and almost as young. And the women must be a really good thief to be included in the meeting. Ezekiel looked her over again, he wasn't emerced in the con world enough to know for sure if she was the con artist, he would have to wait to find out, no introductions were offered.

Ezekiel was not a fan of meetings. They were boring, he had to work with others and his age mattered. Like alot. He could probably stand them if it wasn't for that, if being a world class thief was enough, but it wasn't. And he already knew this which is why he wasn't surprised that when someone decided to write an order for drinks the first answer was,

"whoa, should we tempt the kid, I don't think he's legal yet" ha ha, very funny.

"Mate, Iv been drinking since you were still a Moscow Pickpocket." Ezekiel shot back.

The Russian grinned "so explain to me how someone who doesn't exist can drink"

Ezekiel looked at Rusty helplessly. Rusty caught his gaze, "a good question, how would that work Ezekiel" he questioned diabolically

 

No, this was not supposed to happen he couldn't be speechless in the front of these people.

"Reincarnation" he finally squeezed out, still managing to sound cool and confident. The answer earned smirks from all around the table. The smiles were better described as good natured then malicious but that didn't really matter to Ezekiel because they were still looking down on him and he hated that, he was Ezekiel Jones for gods sake! World class thief and now magic wrangler.

Rusty decided to help him out, informing the thieves,

"He is in fact 2 years past the drinking age, but no one is drinking anything until the deal is agreed upon and the plans made" 

"Three years passed" Ezekiel corrected him 

"you are 20 the drinking age is 18" 

"Yeah 18, 19, 20" Ezekiel explained keeping count on his fingers

"but you don't count 18, so 19, 20" rusty said also keeping count on his fingers. "Wait, no, that's wrong it goes 18 to 19 that's 1, 19 to 20 that's 2 plus however many months you are." He smiled as everything clicked into place "yea that's right "

"but, you have to" Ezekiel started a counter but his argument was interrupted by crumpled paper whizzing past his head. 

"you said we shouldn't drink so I figured we didn't need the order form, and the wastebasket was way over there so..." the youngest Russian thief explained sheepishly

"okay, so we need to make the plan first and then we can make the deal' Rusty started, taking control and moving forward, a good way to get a say Ezekiel's parents had always told him. Plus the thief looked at Rusty like he just saved his life, which, judging by the look Rurikovich had given his aspiring basketball player, could be the situation

"we should scare them into moving it and then I could probably hack into the system and get them to send it to the wrong place" Ezekiel brainstormed 

"too many armed guards, they would be with the Mona Lisa until it got to a secure location. so if you can hire a whole entire museum staff and a bunch of famous paintings and a large building with state-of-the-art security sometime in the next year we could do that" the second in command Russian explained

"okay, but we need something with as few moving parts as necessary, the more complicated it is, the more of a chance it has of going wrong" Ezekiel said trying not to feel like a kid playing grown up.

"you believe in the curse" the women accused, 

"if the only thing protecting that painting was a security system his parents would have stolen it every anniversary instead of just for their honeymoon." Rurikovich said, his voice acknowledging how ridiculous that sounded. No it was how ridiculously good Ezekiel's parents were at stealing that he was acknowledging. 

Ezekiel pretended for a second that he was acknowledging how ridiculously good they ARE at stealing, pretending that they were on the other side of the door sipping hot cocoa with rum mixed in and planning something crazy, something ridiculous.

But the second passed and he drifted back to this timeline where Rusty was explaining to Rurikovich that Ezekiel's parents technically hadn't stolen the Mona Lisa on the honeymoon, they just put it back, but the one they stole and the one they put back were both fakes so it didn't matter. The Russians all looked thoroughly confused, which seemed fitting for his parents. From the things he remembered and the stories he knew his parents were vary confusing people. 

The meeting went on after the women told them all they were crazy and paranoid, believing this curse. they figured out a plan and then they started figuring out the deal which was painfully boring especially because the only people with any say were rusty, Rurikovich and the second in command plus some comments from the women, who was definitely a con artist. So he was left just sitting there bored.

Eventually Ezekiel threw in one too many annoying comments and Rusty said,

"you know what, we don't need to you, disappear, actually don't disappear, stay in this pub" Ezekiel got up to go "oh and do not rob the security guards or set anything on fire"

"I'm not 10" Ezekiel almost whined as the door shut behind him.

* Back track half an hour

 

Stone glared at the door for a few seconds, the more time he spent with Rusty the less he liked him. Now he had to act normal, easy when normal was being something resembling a football playing troll, he had done that for years,but how do you act like highly trained security that works for an evil drug lord? He took a step back, noticing another man staring at the door with an exasperated expression on his face. The man caught Stone's gaze and smiled good naturedly throwing his hands up in the air, 

"if you see them doing anything abnormal kill them, wow, I couldn't possibly make a mistake with such clear instructions," he said in a deep Russian accent.

Stone laughed, "мы привыкли к нему, вы говорите на английском языке очень хорошо, как вы узнали" (we're used to it, you speak very good English, how'd you learn) the conversation continued and Stone went from desperately trying to look normal to being spell bound by the man's adventures and mesmerizing demeanor. Even as he told tales of evil, his character taking part in the crimes, he also made you laugh. One minute you feel heartbroken for the victims, then the perpetrators. 

Eventually Cassandra wandered over after being equally spellbound by the other guards. The man changed to english, 

"hello, I'm Valentin" he said kissing her hand, "and you are" 

"Cassendra Killian" she said, smiling, wondering if he liked math and if she had it in her to learn Russian.

Then the door opened and Ezekiel exited, effectively ruining the moment. Valentin laughed. 

"Is the meeting over?" Stone asked, confused. 

"He got kicked out" Valentin explained "in fact he hasn't sat through a meeting since he grew out of coloring books"

"I decided there were better uses of my time" Ezekiel explained.

Valentin raised his eyebrows, "mm hmm, if you steal my wallet I will kill you" 

"no you won't" Rusty and Rurikovich shouted at the same time.

"So you know each other" Stone said, wary of Valentin again.

"I do, every few years Australians and Russians work with each other, every few years the Russians and Australians learn to hate each other a little bit more." 

"how's your collection of famous paintings doing I heard it got thinned out" Ezekiel asked innocently 

"that was you!" Valentin shouted "this is why we hate the Australians. They're always stealing our stuff and stabbing us in the back"

"we're always stabbing you in the back, last time"

"You were tasered and thrown into dumpsters whaa whaa"Rurikovich said walking out of the meeting room and rolling his eyes. 

"I can only be beat up so many times my productivity starts to decline" Ezekiel whined

"But none of that will happen this time" Rusty said confidently. Everyone in the room scoffed and rolled their eyes at the same time.

Stone looked around, thinking two months ago finding out about a criminal underground would be the most incredible thing that happened to him, now it was pretty low on the list.

"OK, you had your meeting time to go" Cassandra said, trying to corral them towards the door that led to the library. Rusty just laughed and pulled Ezekiel the other direction, out the other door. 

"You can come if you want" he shouted. a car waited for them outside the door. a guy about Ezekiel's age jumped out of the driver's seat. He and Ezekiel yelled "shotgun" at the same time. A hilarious fight ensued. Stone walked over, pushed them both out of the way with one arm and motioned for Cassandra to jump in. He felt like a senior at highschool again. Ezekiel, the other guy and stone squeezed into the back seat.

"Where are we going" 

"My home" Ezekiel said, his voice filled with dread.


End file.
